A fine way to make money: Leeds Uni rake in £2.5million from library charges

Leeds Uni have made on average a massive £320,000 in fines per year since 2005. 

New figures show a whopping £2,556,746 has been collected in library fines since 2005.

£350,000 was collected in the 2011/12 academic year, but students got their act together last year as library fines fell by over £60,000.

This follows last week’s news that not paying your fines could prevent you from graduating.

When asked how the £2.5 million has been spent, a University spokesperson said: “Money received in fines is used to purchase additional resources such as books or pay for the development of services and for users.”

2007-08 was the biggest year for fines – £359,228 was collectively charged by The Brotherton, Edward Boyle and Health Sciences libraries – working out at around £11.68 per student.

Last year’s figures mean on average we were charged £9.37 each.

Charges for the 2013/14 year are expected to drop after the ‘fairer fines’ initiative was introduced last August.

The system is designed to be a deterrent, claim the university, but it appears many of us are prepared to take a fine over venturing over to campus.